Charged particle beam apparatus

Abstract

To include a focused ion beam apparatus fabricating a sliced specimen by processing a specimen as well as observing the sliced specimen, a scanning electron microscope observing the slice specimen, a gas-ion beam irradiation apparatus performing finishing processing by irradiating a gas-ion beam onto a surface of the sliced specimen, a specimen stage on which the sliced specimen is fixed and having at least one or more rotation axis, a specimen posture recognition means recognizing positional relation of the sliced specimen with respect to the specimen stage and a specimen stage control means controlling the specimen stage based on a specimen posture recognized by the posture recognition means and an installation angle of the gas-ion beam irradiation apparatus in order to allow an incident angle of the gas-ion beam with respect to the obverse or the reverse of the sliced specimen to be a desired value.

1. A charged particle beam apparatus comprising:
 a focused ion beam apparatus fabricating a sliced specimen by processing a specimen as well as observing the sliced specimen; 
 a scanning electron microscope observing the sliced specimen; 
 a gas-ion beam irradiation apparatus performing finishing processing by irradiating a gas-ion beam onto a surface of the sliced specimen; 
 a specimen stage on which the sliced specimen is fixed and having at least one rotation axis; 
 a specimen posture recognition means recognizing positional relation of the sliced specimen with respect to the specimen stage; and 
 a specimen stage control means controlling the specimen stage based on a specimen posture recognized by the posture recognition means and an installation angle of a lens barrel of the gas-ion beam irradiation apparatus in order to allow an incident angle of the gas-ion beam with respect to the obverse or the reverse of the sliced specimen to be a desired value. 
 
   
   
     2. The charged particle beam apparatus according to  claim 1 , wherein the specimen posture recognition means recognizes positional relation of the sliced specimen with respect to the specimen stage based on an observation image of the sliced specimen by the focused ion beam apparatus or the scanning electron microscope, and coordinates of the specimen stage at the time of observation. 
   
   
     3. The charged particle beam apparatus according to  claim 1 , wherein any one of plural gas-ion beams of neon, argon, krypton, xenon and nitrogen is applied as the gas-ion beam. 
   
   
     4. The charged particle beam apparatus according to  claim 1 , wherein the specimen stage is a five-axis stage having a tilt axis which is orthogonal to lens barrel axes of the focused ion beam apparatus and the scanning electron microscope, a three-axis orthogonal stage which rotates with the rotation of the tilt axis and a rotation axis which is placed on the three-axis orthogonal stage. 
   
   
     5. The charged particle beam apparatus according to  claim 4 , wherein axes of the focused ion beam apparatus and the scanning electron microscope and a axis of the gas-ion beam irradiation apparatus substantially intersect at one point, further, the axis of the gas-ion beam irradiation apparatus is on a plane including the tilt axis and the axis of either the focused ion beam apparatus or the scanning electron microscope, as well as has an angle which is orthogonal or not parallel to the tilt axis.